30 days to 30

So, today marks 30 days until my 30th birthday and I’d like to do something really fantastic. Turning 30 is a rite of passage in many ways, and I wanted to make the day, and the entrance into a new decade of life, a memorable one. So I’ve decided that I want to dedicate my birthday to the underserved. Although I can’t say that I am a model of humanitarianism, I have done what I can to help others in ways that I feel are most suited to my skill set. And here I’d like to use this opportunity to focus on the needs of others. That being said, most of you reading this are friends, family and acquaintances, so I’m not going to make any assumptions about whether you had planned on giving me a gift or not. What I am asking, whether you planned to give me a present, a card or even just a wish, is to please instead make a gift to any of these worthwhile causes. I’ve researched them all carefully and am confident that they represent both the ideals and values that I believe in, and in all likelihood reflect your beliefs as well. Thank you!

“Live simply that others may simply live.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

Check out our facebook event!

The Joys of Google Reader

So I’ve recently discovered Google Reader; and it is amazing! I was sitting in my office making a list of the various journals I “should be” keeping up with. I got to the second journal and started thinking there’s got to be a better way…

And hells yes there is. So thanks to being a grad student and working at a University I have full access to their journal subscriptions. So basically I just plugged in the journal I wanted to know about, the library search engine pointed me to the database (ovid, bmc, wiley, etc.) and then each of the databases had a different way of linking to the RSS.

The REALLY great thing is that not only can I easily keep up on the latest publications from the journals listed here, but I can also use Ovid to RSS search results. So when, for example, you’re doing a systematic review that lasts a semester or a year or whatever, you can get continuous updates of new articles that fall under your search terms.

HOW COOL IS THAT?!??!?!?

So yea, pretty psyched that this is even a possibility…

Why Education and Choice Won’t Solve the Obesity Problem

comments by my mom on article…

American Journal of Public Health | April 2009, Vol 99, No, 4 “Why Education and Choice Won’t Solve the Obesity
Problem”

Anthony, the article was great. What I learned I did not know:

1. Fast Food chains are densely populated in areas of low-income families (2 for a 1.00, that’s why and the fat/sugar fill up bellies).
2. You can’t increase the amount of healthier foods available without decreasing the bad foods at the same time if you expect people to change. It’s the availability.
3. Educated people are thinner than uneducated people. (I sort of knew this, but it was along the lines of “rich people are thinner than poor people”, see number 1 and also b/c of what you can get with WIC and food stamps.
4. Need new legislation: A box label “99% fat free” needs to say how much sugar they added to make it taste good (this really hit home to me recently, I was buying crackers and I read the labels of the same brand for these boxes: fat free, low sodium, regular. The fat free added lots of sugar and salt, the low sodium added fat for flavor. So you had to decide if you wanted lots of sugar and salt and no fat, or eat fat but avoid the salt. I bought the regular).
5. Great idea (to a point) Red, yellow, green lights on the packages (like for cars) letting you know the health of the food. But then what parameters? They said people don’t have time to read all the labels of one type of product and by the time they are done they don’t even remember which one was better, add to that trying to get thru the store with kids and get home to make dinner. Thus, grab hamburger helper.
6. Great idea: putting labels on the product like are on cigarette packages (look how long and how many died for that to take effect).

I also recently saw on CNN heroes a lady (she was black, I think in Mississippi and all the kids in it were black) and she started a program at the local school where she installed workout equipment and asked personal trainers and dietitians to come in and mentor the kids. The kids were huge, one boy was 13 and he was over 400 lbs., he could hardly walk. She said, “How low has our country sunk, that we are KILLING our children.”

I almost cried. Mom